Government Certification in Logistics –Vskills Certified Logistics Professional

Government Certification in Logistics –Vskills Certified Logistics Professional

ICSIL, a Govt. of India PSU has launched a certification in Logistics and Supply Chain
Management. Vskills Certified Logistics and Supply Chain Management Certification are
targeted at students and professionals, who want to build a rewarding career in this domain and
want to certify their prior learning. ICSIL stepped into the certification area primarily seeing -
the need in the market for benchmarks - for employment generation, and also as a responsibility
of the government to be present in areas where confidence in a certification is paramount.
Speaking on the launch of Logistics and SCM certification, GK Nanda, CEO ICSIL said, “There
is a need for a coordinated effort to reduce the employability gap and address the structural
issues of job demand in the new age sectors. It is a welcome initiative to enable job seekers to
accelerate their career by providing them certification and a rich cross-learning experience”.
“With skill development and employability increasing grabbing attention a collaborative
approach by government, industry and corporate is required to bridge the skill gap and increase
productivity and output.” says Jasneet Singh, Managing Consultant, Vskills
Anyone who aspires to earn the certification can register online by paying a nominal fee and then
appear for the exam at any of the listed centers across India. Even international candidates can
appear for this exam through an online testing platform.
The certification open avenues in various sectors and gives a chance to get certified in areas
where one is not formally educated. The Certifications do not require any time commitment
since it is only a test and not classroom teaching. In addition, CVs of certified candidates are
flagged on Monsters website as "Vskills Certified candidates" and are shared with relevant
employers increasing chances of employment. Each year, thousands of practitioners pursue
Vskills certification with a motive to enhance their chances and boost employability. The
programs are continuously reviewed to ensure that they meet current industry needs and provide
desirable credential for professionals pursuing the certification “for career advancement. 

Strategy for Logistics companies when Rupee is falling

Strategy for Indian Logistics companies when Rupee is falling (comments published in Logistics Times, September,2013 issue)

The continuous slide of Indian Rupee against Dollar is a cause of concern and shall have some definite effects on Indian logistics business. One has to move from disadvantageous situation created due to free slide of the Rupee and focus the efforts to the areas where new opportunities shall get created during this state of crisis. It can be a blessing in disguise for some.

Policy makers are striving hard to contain current account deficit (CAD) and all out efforts are on to contain the import and increase exports and check the volatility in the foreign exchange market..

In order to curtail imports, Government of India shall have to revitalize manufacturing sector which unfortunately during last few months is showing even negative growth. Existing manufacturing companies also shall have to resort to cut down the imported content and find indigenous ways. This shall require innovative ways and new R&D efforts for survival.

Here lies the opportunity for logistics companies to strengthen inbound logistics which can prove backbone to the manufacturing companies by transporting raw material and components required by the shop floor of manufacturing company at the right time, at right quality and at right price.

While outbound logistics is at a fairly matured stage in our country, inbound logistics is still at a nascent stage and it is the right climate now that logistics companies tie themselves up with manufacturing companies closely for a long lasting relationship with them.

Other opportunity for logistics companies lies in earning foreign exchange for the country and cross the national frontiers  and provide consultancies in neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal or African countries and nearby middle east countries to start with.

On the export front, as a matter of fact our performance since last 12 years has been quite impressive and is much higher at 20 per cent than the world average of 12 per cent but our imports have grown still higher touching the rate at 28 per cent. So logistics companies which are tied up with exporters shall still have to work harder to help existing exporters to expand their business and become competitive in terms of efficiency, time and service. 

Few foreign companies may have to run away from the country as probably their royalty payments etc. in dollar term may go down and that space must be filled up by big and tough indigenous players both in manufacturing and logistics sector. When things start becoming tougher it is the tough who get going.   

Prof. Akhil Chandra

Consultant Logistics and supply chain management

ZERO INVENTORIES AND JUNGLE MANAGEMENT

            A STORY ABOUT ZERO INVENTORIES AND JUNGLE MANAGEMENT

Once upon a time, there lived a sorceress and her son. They lived in a very fertile jungle by accident and ruled over its inhabitants consisting of peaceful birds and animals like wild bears, elephants, rabbits, squirrels, tortoises and peacocks, beavers, flamingos, parrots and nightingales etc.  Sorceress had a sheepish tiger, few wolves and jackals and some cunning foxes as a coterie of her cronies to help her to rule over the animals and birds that were very hard working and spent most of their time to collect the produce of jungle and deposit it in the treasury and warehouses of the sorceress and ate what was allowed by the sorceress to consume. All the produce of the jungle first used to be carried to sorceress and then she used to distribute it from the treasury according to her whims and fancies without bothering for future to stock. She ruled over them with a policy of divide and rule. She created discrimination between brown animals and black animals or white birds and colored birds and succeeded in keeping them divided based on their color. 

Sheepish tiger that was made king by the sorceress was very obliged to her and loved to remain loyal  and faithful and transferred all his powers to the sorceress. Sorceress was cunning and she too usurped all the powers of king and chose personally all the courtiers of the king.  Sheepish King tiger was stupid and did not mind it.   He had a reputation of being honest but he was very timid and spineless. As Sorceress was not directly involved and ruled from behind, she used the sheepish lion as her shield.  The knave king that he was , took all the blame on himself arising because of nepotism and corruption practiced by sorceress. All the king’s couriers colluded with the sorceress indirectly and looted the treasury. Sheepish tiger had become almost as a punching bag in his kingdom and slowly animals and birds started hating him. In-spite of all the blame put on him for the misdeeds of his courtiers and sorceress, He worshiped the invisible sorceress as he was very scared from her spells and treated her like a goddess and often prostrated before her. In true sense he was merely a puppet in the hands of family of the sorceress.

 He was only for name sake a king but still enjoyed the un-elected post given to him. Jackals and foxes knew the weakness of their king and took full advantage of it and kept a direct contact with sorceress and her son. This helped them to curry extra favors from the sorceress and sorceress too enjoyed their sycophancy and allowed them to keep part of the produce for themselves adding to the huge corruption in the system.   None of the creatures of jungles had seen the sorceress and she used to keep an extremely low profile and rarely came out of her fortress and very few were allowed to meet her in person.

 In the jungle lived also a huge python who was lazy but he acted as an arbiter of justice as agreed by all the inhabitants and sorceress too because he had divine powers given by God Almighty. But for most of the time he slept for months or even for years.  But once awake it used to settle disputes and tried to maintain some semblance of justice but again used to get lost in deep slumber sometimes for years together that too without announcement.

 Inhabitants of the jungle had no option but they waited and prayed to God so that python could wake up again accidently to solve their problems. They cursed their fate and many of them died with justice denied. Sorceress took full advantage of the interim period and her coterie looted the treasury and sometimes threw part of the leftover to the hungry animals and birds to pacify them and remain in power without inviting any revolution from the ill-fated miserable inhabitants of the jungle.

 Python had appointed a falcon to investigate the corruption carried out by the coterie of sorceress and as the python had huge faith in the investigatory power of the falcon, he often slept soundly.

Sorceress had lot of tricks up her sleeves. She clipped the talons of the falcon and tied its feathers and bounded it in a cage. Then she turned the falcon into a parrot because she knew parrot would speak what it was trained to speak by her cronies and parrot did really what it was told whenever it was called by the python to report on investigation on corruption . Python had lot of faith on the falcon nay the parrot and whatever parrot spoke, python believed even without opening its eyes.  This went on for long because this time python really slept undisturbed believing that falcon would keep a check on the nefarious designs of the coterie of sorceress.

Over the years as fate would have wanted, talons of the falcon and feathers started growing again as a natural process. But falcon believed that he was still a parrot as he was after all under the influence of the spell cast by sorceress.

In the meantime corruption had reached its nadir and jackals and foxes were openly filling their coffers for their kith and kin and there was huge hue and cry all around in the jungle and everybody protested and heaved with pain due to hunger arising because of the onslaughts of corruption. This disturbed the python’s sleep and he woke up from his deep slumber. He called the falcon but was quite dismayed to see the miserable condition of falcon and was quite amused. He got a further shock of his life when python questioned about its investigation on corruption only spoke like a parrot as trained by the coterie of sorceress.

Python rebuked the falcon telling him that he was nothing but a parrot and  had too many masters. As python had divine powers, he converted the falcon back to his original shape giving him his new talons and a sharp beak and asked him to reinvestigate the corruption. Falcon realized his mistake and it too acknowledged that he really behaved during all this time like a caged parrot as dictated by its numerous masters. Then python again slept as it was summer holidays to fall and it loved sleeping.

Falcon went back soaring up in the sky and it wheeled and dived in the free air under the azure sky and bright sunshine. His eyes were sharp as ever and he looked in every nook and corner of the jungle. He soon found out his prey and  really caught few jackals red handed deeply immersed in corruption with their pants down. Falcon was amazed at its speed and alacrity and thoroughly enjoyed catching the culprits. This alerted the sorceress and her son and they decided to do something and somehow put the blame once again on the timid king.

The jackals who were caught complained to sheepish lion that why should they be punished when they were only trying to protect their holy king. Sheepish lion too thought that it was none of his fault and neither of jackals because the real beneficiaries were sorceress and her son. 

Sorceress and her son ordered the sheepish lion king to remove the so called corrupt jackals immediately as their reputation was dwindling rapidly. Sheepish lion that was timid could not protect his comrades and had to issue the order to remove the few jackals that were found culprit by the investigating falcon.

Sorceress was convinced that sheepish lion was proving to be a liability and decided that it was high time that she replaced the sheepish lion with her son as  king .But the son was reluctant and was not as sharp as his mother and continued to evade the responsibility. He in fact had a dull mind. This enraged the sorceress however she reminded her son not to worry and she will take care of all the perils and shall depute wolves around him.

Wolves were shrewd and they advised sorcerer that there could be a revolution as there was lot of discontent among poor and weak animals and birds of the jungle because of exposure of corruption and they would one day attack her fortress.

She was ready with the solution and declared that all the poor and weak animals shall be given free food and they need not work. This emptied the treasury once again and there were zero inventories of the eatables in the warehouses and nothing was left for future to survive especially during floods and famines which were frequent in the jungle.  

READERS, PLEASE COMMENT ABOUT LOGISTICS OF THIS JUNGLE MANAGEMENT

talent crunch in Indian Logistics industry

                                  Talent Crunch in the Logistics Industry

 

With smooth passage and approval of FDI policy for multi-branding retail from both Houses of  Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha ,thanks to the support of SP and BSP parties, Indian logistics and supply chain industry is to witness huge spurt in investments to be  initiated by multinationals  towards improvement of  back end infrastructure,  made mandatory by government of India in terms of state of art warehouses , cold chain  and technology managed supply chain initiatives both inbound and outbound. This shall however require huge trained and skilled manpower in the field of logistics and supply chain management. Sadly lack of trained manpower in the country and matching this burgeoning demand may prove to be as challenging as cleansing of Augean stables .

In most of the Logistics seminars conducted in the country by CII and others, captains of industry and logistics honchos have repeatedly pointed out this lacuna but little has been done in this area by the various stake holders including Government, private industry and academic institutions.

Industry suffers from acute talent shortage and there is a huge gap between supply and burgeoning demand of trained manpower both in terms of quality and quantity. The Indian logistics industry has been growing at a faster pace and is likely to cross the $200 billion figure by 2020. However talent crunch remains a wide gaping hole and shall prove to be the biggest impediment towards path of progress of Logistics industry.

I would enumerate few reasons for this sorry state of affair, which are lack of funds with private academic institutions, lack of quality teachers with industry experience and lack of general awareness about logistics industry among students seeking admissions resulting only in in-take of mediocre students opting for logistics as area of specialization for their undergraduate and post graduate courses.

First, I shall talk about academic institutions. Some are born great and some achieve greatness and on some mediocrity is thrust upon them. Indian academics circle in this area encompassing both teachers and taught barring a few suffers from mediocrity and one can only lament the sorry state of affair because mediocrity has been thrust upon them. There is a dearth of institutions providing degrees in area of Logistics as a core subject. Even IIMs do not offer regular post graduate courses in area of Logistics and supply chain management with a few exceptions of only advanced and short term courses or as a mere subject in core disciplines..

Due to lack of availability of talent, industry continues to employ people with general background rather than with much desired specialization. Some big players in this industry have started imparting in-house trainings to new entrants through customized courses but there is almost a time lag of one to two years before the trainees start contributing to the organization in a matured manner and industry now can ill afford this delay. What industry needs now is a ready made recipe of trained manpower so as to deliver the ROI faster as would be demanded by the shareholders of new investments in this industry.

As such a lot has to be done to towards imparting right education by government with efforts like fresh and quick approval of new academic institutions imparting skilled education at all levels including diploma, undergraduate and post graduate courses with compulsory and regular industry academia interfacing in both directions of academics to industry and vice versa for which salaries of teachers are to made attractive to attract people with industry exposure.

  Existing educational institutes which are facing severe cash crunch must be given subsidy by government to modernize their educational system. Incentives by government should be provided to open new institutes providing vocational and skilled trainings and degrees. .

 The awareness of importance of Logistics and supply chain management in the minds of public and students and the potential it has for bright careers has to be created by the combined efforts of government, industry and academic institutions.  Efforts of CII through its institution of Logistics have to be further strengthened and expanded throughout the country. Present image of Logistics industry must be wiped out which is Moreover, because of the false and poor image of logistics industry as if industry belongs to truck drivers, the industry is not able to attract students seeking sophisticated jobs and female workforce into it.

Logistics and supply chain management has to be  recognized as a board level subject as it encompasses the whole gamut of business environment starting from conceptualization of the product and encompassing all areas  up to its  consumption involving suppliers, manufacturers, logistics providers, dealers, stockists, retailers and consumers. This discipline as such offers tremendous career growth opportunities to new students seeking admissions and new employees can even rise to the level of CEO coupled with the exposure of entire business environment experienced at a macro-level.

It is hoped that retail revolution in the country unleashed by policy approval of multi-branding by government of India and arrival of  multinationals  in the country like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco, Metro etc. will force and shake the complacency adopted by all the stake holders of this industry so far .

challenges to Logistics to enhance indian manufacturing

With the recent successful launch of Agni-5 missile with its range more than  5000 Km, India has joined the select club of nations like U.S. , China, France and  Russia ,however to be entitled to be called a  super power, India has to catch up with these  developed nations on many fronts . One such desired area is definitely manufacturing because China in order to become a real super power improved itself drastically in area of manufacturing so much so that with its sustained efforts, it became a global manufacturing hub.   

Manufacturing in India is still a mere 15 percent of the country’s GDP while it is 34 per cent for China and 40 per cent for Thailand .  Eleventh five year plan targeted growth in manufacturing at 10 to 11 percent but actual performance remained  only about 7.7 percent. Government of India (GOI) has as such rightly put lot of emphasis on manufacturing in its 12^th five year plan ( year 2012-2017)  by  targeting  a growth of 12 to 14 per cent. As per the 12^th national manufacturing plan, the 2.0 to 4.0 per cent differential over the medium term growth rate of the overall economy will enable manufacturing to contribute at least 25.0 per cent of GDP by  year 2025.

This shall help to provide a large portion of additional employment opportunities to  India’s increasing number of youth. While the services sector has been growing fast, it alone cannot absorb the 250 million additional income-seekers that are expected to join the workforce in the next 15 years. Unless manufacturing becomes an engine of growth, providing at least 100 million additional decent jobs, urban, rural gap will further widen and it will be difficult for India’s growth to be inclusive. Further India’s balance of trade can not be balanced any longer  just by increasing raw material exports and importing finished goods and the export basket must include much larger volume of manufactured goods.

 However to reach this ambitious target, a lot needs to be done in the direction of improving country’s infrastructure to produce quality products and be competitive globally. What is required as such by manufacturing companies is working on optimum cost and improvement in quality, efficiency and speed to response to customer’s needs in the global market place. In all these directions both inbound logistics and outbound logistics as shown in figure 1 below face unprecedented challenges and can make major contributions if tackled in a planned manner.

                                        Figure 1

 National manufacturing plan has identified following sectors as priority sectors for the 12^th five year plan.

1. Sectors that will create large employment

• Textiles and Garments

• Leather and Footwear

• Gems and Jewellery

• Food Processing Industries

• Handlooms and Handicrafts

2. Sectors that will deepen technology capabilities in Manufacturing

• Machine tools

• IT Hardware and Electronics

3. Sectors that will provide Strategic Security

• Telecommunication equipment

• Aerospace

• Shipping

• Defence Equipment

4. Manufacturing-Technology sectors for Energy Security

• Solar Energy

• Clean Coal Technologies

• Nuclear power generation

5. Capital equipment for India’s Infrastructure Growth

• Heavy electrical equipment

• Heavy transport, earth moving and mining equipment

6. Sectors where India has competitive advantage

• Automotive Sector

• Pharmaceuticals and Medical Equipment

7. MSME sector

—the base for the Manufacturing Sector—employment and

enterprise generation

Among the above sectors, Automotive sector, heavy electrical equipment, pharmaceutical and medical equipment, machine tools, telecommunication, Aerospace, shipping and defence equipment etc have quite a complex manufacturing and as such objectives like cost minimization to remain competitive, attainment of speed, efficiency, quality and responsiveness to customers are more challenging and equally is the contribution of inbound and outbound logistics extremely critical. While government of India is taking suitable steps in various directions like creating trained manpower, encouraging Industry Academia interfacing and improving logistics infrastructure in the direction of  Road, , shipping and Aviation with emphasis on public and private partnership, we shall  look more closely  into the challenges which are offered to manufacturing  and Logistics industry and to new and existing Logistics players. I must point out here that the challenges are also new opportunities to the new and existing players and  if they are able to embrace the challenges successfully , they have a big opportunity to reap the benefits as early birds giving them sustenance to become long term players. What one needs to remember is that in such an environment, manufacturing companies, logistics players, suppliers, dealers and Retailers have to strive through teamwork  to a  perfect supply chain order that is getting the right product to the right customer at the right time, in the right condition and at the right cost.

For manufacturing companies to succeed, handling inbound logistics by manufacturing companies is of paramount importance and quite critical. While there are enough outbound logistics players in the country handling transportation and warehousing of finished goods, there are only few inbound logistics players helping manufacturing companies and can be counted on fingers. It is a common knowledge that lack of one critical component during manufacturing can bring entire manufacturing activities to a screeching halt. As such ensuring faster availability of material and components at the right time for manufacturing   companies becomes an essential factor and as such manufacturing companies must choose their Logistics partner very carefully. I would like to call inbound logistics players as better half of manufacturing companies as such marriage must take place between the two for a long term relationship which would be mutually beneficial.

Globally such strong relationships have helped Companies like Toyota, Ford, Chrysler and many more with their 3 PL  partners like DHL, Ryder , Schneider Logistics , GEFCO and VASCOR ltd etc evolve cost optimizations in their inbound and outbound logistics  increasing  their profits and customers/dealers’ delight .  

Further consider the following facts.

·          Logistics in manufacturing  industry is the  most important function after product development   as there is a significant volume of goods movement, both inbound (components and material sourcing) and outbound (product distribution).

·         On the inbound side, 3PL service providers ensure timely delivery of materials in the required quantities to meet daily production schedules and can play a major role  in the order processing of manufacturing companies.

·         On the outbound side, they play a significant role in satisfying  dealers as last mile activity by ensuring timely consignment delivery to dealers increasing responsiveness to Dealers providing them a safe  and reliable service. They also play value added logistics functions such as packing, labelling , quality checking and pre-inspection activities.

Now that the Manufacturing in  India has to grow rapidly , the time is just ripe for third party logistics providers to integrate their logistics operations both inbound and outbound into the supply chain of the  manufacturing companies to create a win-win situation for both the parties to maximise their ROI  through cost optimizations and improvement in service levels to their customers and dealers.

 Here one should keep in mind that technology can play a very crucial role in ensuring success and as such inbound and Outbound Logistics players who understand the importance of technology such as implementation of ERP, Information technology, RFID , automation etc and are ready to make investments in these areas stand a greater chance of success.

CHALLENGES TO LOGISTICS COMPANIES ( 3PL SERVICE PROVIDERS)

We shall now discuss more closely to see what are the challenges for the logistics companies ( 3PL service providers) to provide impetus to manufacturing.

1.       Technology resources

In the new environment, there is a challenge to 3PL service providers to sharpen their information system capability, Automation and ICT capabilities and their accessibility to technical knowhow through Tie-ups, foreign collaborations. They must widely embrace technology covering mobile solutions that enable surface and airfreight operators to communicate while shipments are in transit; route optimization and navigation software; and customer-facing solutions offering tracking and tracing capabilities. Technology should not be used by them merely for technology sake. They must create enterprise-wide visibility, control conformance to shipping instructions, and monitor carriers' performances in pickups and deliveries.

2. Customization and Flexibility

3PL providers should rise to the occasion to be flexible in accommodating emergency and contingency requirements of manufacturing companies. They should have their back-up plans in active mode including manpower, routes and network resources. They must continuously get involved in for continued process improvements that control costs and ensure ongoing efficiency.

The Mantra for manufacturing companies while outsourcing their inbound and outbound logistics to 3PL service provider should be:  focus on your core competence and reap the benefits of third party infrastructure by outsourcing to parties who have specialized expertise and experience in these areas. 

3. Challenge of increasing Resource strength in terms of  manpower and network resources.

3PL companies shall have to hone up their manpower resources in terms of their motivation level, skill set with professional development program. Remember that in a service segment in which Logistics providers operate, 4 Ps unlike in marketing mean people, people, people and people.

4. Industry knowledge and expertise

3PL service providers shall have to accept challenge of providing relevant experience with different type of products, technology integration, geographic area and their routes, and other specific needs. If the need be, they have to be receptive to enter into foreign collaborations.

5. Challenge of enhancing operational strengths

3PL service providers must serve multiple product markets where compliance, safety, and cargo security are required. If one logistics provider can meet the needs of a diverse base of customers, each with its own challenges and industry requirements, then the chances of a successful partnership with manufacturing companies greatly increases.  In a present globalized scenario he has to have capability to handle inbound and outbound multi-modal logistics involving domestic and foreign vendors. His access and proximity to sea port and airports and material handling capabilities, his fleet strength are important considerations.  He must be able to tackle expedited deliveries. Whether he can run Milk runs to help optimize transportation and production? Manufacturers and Logistics provider both can operate efficiently by increasing the frequency of runs to multiple suppliers, which reduces the lot size of each move, allowing the transporter to fill trucks.

6. Commitment to tight delivery schedules and safety of  products

Stock-out is a dreaded word for manufacturers and dealers and it can only be avoided by commitment of 3PL partner to time schedules for end to end delivery, safety and reliability. "To be more efficient 3PL providers must enhance the velocity to inbound parts and smaller shipments picked up and delivered more frequently to keep inventory low. Logistics is a key foundation of the complex manufacturing systems as such if 3PL Partner does not move material efficiently and in small lots then manufacturers might lose many of the benefits in their lean production systems requirement.

CHALLENGES FOR MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

There are challenges equally for manufacturing companies in terms of coordination with their third party logistics providers both for inbound and outbound logistics, material management, purchase and dispatch departments. Manufacturing companies shall have to create a dedicated SCM (Supply Chain Management). Many manufacturing companies still handle different parts of supply chain in silos through different departments like outbound logistics being handled by marketing, production planning under manufacturing and material and inbound logistics by sourcing department losing the larger picture of being customer centric and ultimately customer requirements are not met. And when the customer suffers causing loss of business, blame game starts where marketing department would blame production and production blaming in turn sourcing department. This must end and manufacturing companies should start a fresh by bringing all departments like planning, logistics, material under single department of SCM which shall be fully accountable for meeting the customer’s requirements.

Further I am enumerating some more challenges for the manufacturing companies which are as under

·         Change the culture of ‘push sales’ to ‘pull based production and supply system’ where suppliers would have to supply only what is required, whenever required , based on actual consumption meaning thereby frequent supplies of small quantities each time

·         Change the culture in different departments in manufacturing from ‘my department’ to ‘our customer’ approach

·         Change management involving changes in MOPs (measures of performance), Performance management system, Planning process, Execution process, ERP,MIS and communication system, etc.

·         Focus on supply chain management system and integration of all relevant departments under one banner as explained above and IT enabled end to end supply chain planning

·         On line visibility of the stocks through IT connectivity to reduce inventory costs

·         Implementation of KANBAN for pull based procurement

·         E-Tracking of transportation vehicles

·         Introduction of lean manufacturing environment with a total quality management approach throughout the Production

• With increased globalization and increased competition and demand uncertainty , challenge of making their supply chains more nimble, responsive,

            reliable and cost-efficient for taking advantage of windows of opportunities.

• SCM department to ensure that there were no stock outs irrespective of the changes in demand Vs forecast.
• Introduce supply chain visibility with permissible access to your suppliers and customers building a long term relationship of trusts and partnership. Complex manufacturers face a variety of challenges made difficult by the complexity of their products and manufacturing processes. Best in class complex manufacturers have to create a collaborative environment to integrate functionality to produce quality, speed and agility. The end result provides visibility from initial engineering design through manufacturing , to quality control and customer service leading to more profitable business and grater customer satisfaction.

Last but not the least, it is the Innovation by manufacturing companies through their research and development teams which shall matter most creating new cost effective and quality products. A major difference between manufacturing in India and China is the Chinese love for continuous Innovation in almost every low and high end product which has made them manufacturing darling of developed countries. Indians too have to create an environment where innovations are suitably rewarded by Government and private companies and research in universities should  not limited merely to awarding PHDs and writing research papers in journals. Any research which has no monetary value for benefit of the society and which industry can not make use of it or purchase is basically garbage for all practical purposes.  In this direction, Industry-Academia interfacing must be encouraged with flow of knowledge both ways to be really effective and fruitful to bring out new and innovative products to give much sought after impetus to manufacturing in India.

Written By

Prof. Akhil Chandra

Consultant, Logistics and Supply Chain Management

09810223277

Akhilchandra06@gmail.com

Create Pie chart of your life

                               Pie Chart of your Life

I have heard lot of people in late fifties often complaining that they worked so hard for their career to reach the top rungs but still they were not happy with their overall achievements in life. Why because they missed on many other things in life like family, health, relationships and a good family life. I know   many workaholics who regretted later as their wife deserted them because they attached more importance to chasing their professional career and pursuit of money while not giving sufficient time to their family. Well, life is a sum total of such needs like money, mental and physical health, knowledge, family life, friendship, morality, self actualization and spirituality. Due to law of equilibrium prevalent in nature, sum total of these needs for a human being still remains same which one can call as ‘Whole Life’.

One can visualize it by drawing a circular pie chart divided into sectors illustrating these needs in proportion to what you have allocated actually or you want to allocate. Wonderful thing about this ‘Whole Life’ is that these requirements are dependent on each other and if you try to increase proportion of one requirement by your actions, it shall have immediate repercussion on other needs. For example if somebody tries to chase too much money in life, he may lose on other fronts like family life, friendship or health proportionately so that sum total in the pie chart still remains the same. That means that everything what one does in life has a cost attached to it and if you try to gain in one, you may have to pay in terms of losses on other fronts. It is like saying that in life there is no free lunch. Wise thing is to create a balance in life and keep proportions of these requirements within limits.  It is like eating balanced diet which comprises of various ingredients and varieties of foods in form of cereals, vegetables, fruits and other intakes rich with protein and vitamins so as to keep you health intact.

At different age and stages of life, proportions of such needs what one seeks from life may vary. Like in early stage of life say when you are   in your twenties, you could allocate more proportion to   money and  professional career which are important to satisfy one’s basic needs like food, shelter etc as per the hierarchy of needs defined by famous sociologist Maslow. In thirties and forties, you have to devote more time to your family life giving it the requisite proportion in the pie chart of your life. Like vise when you are in your fifties, sixties and onwards, you might like to allocate higher proportion to spirituality, self actualization  and to your health.  In Hindu mythology, to keep these proportions in-tact, life was divided in four stages called ‘ Brahma charya Ashram , Grahastha Ashram, Vaan Prastah Ashram and Sanyas ashram’ In Brahmacharya Ashram, one could allocate more proportion of one’s time and activities to knowledge ,morality and health, in Grahastha ashram allocating a higher proportion to seeking money, family life , friendship while in Vaan prastha ashram and Sanyas Ashram, priority was given to health, self actualization and spirituality.

By drawing a pie chart of your life in above manner, one can keep a control of your life so as to not regret later. This shall also help to keep oneself happy and satisfied because some of the material benefits which may look gains in a short term approach may actually be a loss to you in terms of your mental health, relationships and family life. This happens in property disputes among brothers. For apparent material gains actually they have lost on relationships, family life and may be on health too because this may not give them mental peace causing illness or diseases affecting their physical health.

So the Mantra of achieving a good and meaningful life is to keep a proper proportion of your needs in your Pie Chart choosing your activities through right conduct without compromising your moral values which shall surely result in your mission of life well accomplished.

Writer

Akhil Chandra

Management of Finished vehicle yards by 3PL Providers. by Prof. Akhil Chandra

Management of Finished vehicle yards by 3PL Providers.

 Finished  vehicle yards in India are growing rapidly  in their capacity  ranging from 10000 cars to 30000 cars and beyond as car maker Companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hundai and Tata Motors and many others  are planning to set up huge Finished vehicle yards country-vide covering  the states like Tamilnadu, Maharashtra , Gujarat and Haryana. This advance planning is in line with the Sales Forecast for the financial year ending 31^st March,2012 expanding to 3 million light vehicles being manufactured in India and  further  by 2015 to have almost doubled to just shy of 6million units  , with an increase to 8million  units by 2019 and 10million units  by 2024.Growing appetite of Indian consumer for light vehicles was also  evident with the successful Auto Expo 2012 currently staged in New Delhi with almost every Auto manufacturer wooing the Indian customer with the new launches of cars each eager to have their market  share in the growing Indian pie of finished vehicles.

The huge expansions in vehicle yards are however associated with new challenges for the third party Logistics providers and shippers due to associated complex sets of problems which can be solved only by introduction of suitable technology ranging from information and communication technology and process control and Automation.

In this article, we shall look into how 3PL providers/shippers in Automotive segment could solve the complex problems of managing huge vehicle yards with  mammoth size comparable to several football fields.

In order to keep their bottom line intact and growing, 3PL Service Providers have to keep three things in mind to manage their finished vehicle yard efficiently viz visibility in their inventory of finished vehicles , optimization of space utilization in the vehicle yard and integration with their customers ( dealers and vehicle manufacturers). Easier said than done, this requires to take first a holistic view of major pain areas in a large vehicle yard managed manually and then solve them through technology available.

a) Time waiting inside the yard is unknown.

b) Vehicle Location in the yard is unknown to the yard manager who is responsible to quickly unload the vehicles and the time waiting of the Trailer causes delays.

c) No visibility in loading and unloading and the departure time at the distribution centre.

d) Checkout delays, errors and wrong trailers.

This leads to a very lengthy process to solve other associated real time and pressing requirements in the yard which are as under.

• What labour do I need?

• Which cars are blocked?

• How much capacity do I have?

• Where in the yard is damage occurring?

• Which cars are to be loaded to train and which to truck?

• How did we do last month, and can we do better?

• And more.....

Visualization armed with yard monitor through information and communication technology can give better insight…. better understanding.

Efficient equipment yard inventory management requires the ability to automatically track how much inventory is on hand, where and to whom it is being delivered, how long it has been outstanding, and how often it is used. Existing manual equipment inventory management methods can sometimes work, but as the volume of equipment or activity increases, the need for automation is paramount to running an efficient and profitable operation.

How is it really done?

1.      Vehicles are tagged with RFID tags. With the help of these tags, vehicles will be tracked automatically as they move in and out of the yard.

2. RFID readers are installed at key entry and exit points and at locations within the yard. These readers provide instant visibility to what is leaving and entering the yard. As well as its location.

3. RFID badge tags are provided on the drivers. This allows to track driver’s movement and to ensure the correct association of driver with the associated vehicle. Further whether for security reasons or to ensure proper delivery and accountability, tracking authorized repair crews to the correct vehicle and equipment contents on the vehicle is essential for effective utility yard management aided by such Badge tags.

4.      Such RFID sensors and readers are connected to a Wi-Fi local area network connecting them to a warehouse management system (WMS) server.

5. Yard monitor placed in the central control room provides for vehicle yard management provides real time inventory visibility, vehicle locations within the yard and control of outgoing and incoming vehicles at the gate.

By integrating with WMS systems following benefits are derived.

1. Reduced yard operations costs and increased productivity due to a high level of automation.
2. Easy traceability of vehicles within the yard by way of real-time tracking through a visual interface. Vehicles such tagged with RFID tags will be tracked automatically as they move in and out of the yard. RFID readers located at key entry and exit points and at locations within the yard provide instant visibility to inventory leaving and entering the yard, as well as its location. In addition, RFID tags have on-board memory so you can store a complete history of the asset (e.g. life, usage rate, etc.) directly on the tag.
3. Real time visibility of the yard and vehicles. RFID tags automate the receipt of vehicles in the yard and reduce the manual intervention. Whether due to peak periods or as part of a bulk delivery, equipment often get missed at check-out. Manual equipment check-in/check-out procedures are prone to errors and delays. Equipment is sometimes “lost” in the field due to not knowing where or who it was delivered to. An automated gate check solution can significantly increase accuracy and prevent loss of equipment.
4. Customized MIS report generation for better analysis and planning.
5. Ranking of vehicles in order to reduce rework costs.
6. Recommendation of a suitable parking location for each vehicle on the basis of the available slots and the parking settings defined.
7. Visual damage tracking mechanism in order to enable yard jockeys to effectively communicate the location of damage to workshop Mechanics.
8. WMS has an activity management module that identifies the activities that need to be performed on each vehicle, and schedules a time for the performance of the activity. This streamlines the workshop process and ensures timely dispatch of the vehicle from the yard.
9. Yard view management software integrated with WMS graphically can display for example say rectangles to represent trailers and their locations, color-coding them to indicate their status - empty or loaded, waiting to be loaded or unloaded, or in the process of being loaded or unloaded

By integrating the above local area network with the customers through internet, complete visibility is provided to the customers and manufacturers with warning alarms and alerts sent through E-Mail. 

Summary

RFID managed yard management systems are already in vogue in developed countries. Such web based yard managed systems provide real time location system capabilities to manage the trailers and vehicles in the ever growing complex and large yard environment and complete visibility of the inventory to shippers and third party logistics service providers. It is imperative and a must that Indian shippers and 3PL providers  also embrace such technological solutions without delay to remain competitive in the present cut throat competition in Automotive domain due to fresh arrivals of Automotive multinationals in the country.

Written by

Prof. Akhil Chandra

Consultant – Logistics and Supply Chain management